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SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — In Fosyth Park and across Savannah’s downtown historic district, green water gushing from the city’s fountains are sending the signal that St. Patrick’s Day is barely a week away.

Several hundred onlookers gathered at the park’s wrought-iron fountain Friday as Savannah city officials dumped green food coloring into the water. It’s an annual tradition that precedes the sprawling St. Patrick’s Day parade and street party that brings thousands of tourists to Georgia’s oldest city every March.

Savannahians of Irish descent have been celebrating St. Patrick’s for 189 years. And the 2013 parade will follow another longstanding tradition in Georgia’s oldest city.

The actual March 17 holiday falls on a Sunday this year, so the parade and beer-drinking revelry have been bumped up to Saturday.